Abstract
The main objective of this paper is to derive existence value of selected bird species living in the Czech Republic and protected under the Natura 2000 program. For the purpose of this study, the Black Stork (Ciconia nigra) has been chosen.
Population of Black Stork is dependent, among others, on its ability to find nest trees in appropriately managed forests. The existence value of Black Stork is derived by contingent valuation method that uses data from representative survey of adult Czech population (N=1,280), conducted in 2007.
Estimates of annual and total willingness to pay for preservation of population of Black Stork are derived using nonparametric Turnbull estimator for interval-censored WTP data. Estimated values are compared with existence values of wildlife and fish species derived in studies conducted abroad.